Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS

THE GULLS AND THEIR ALLIES

The Tufted Puffin

{Lunda cirrhata), the only member of its genus, inhabits the North Pacific, being especially abundant in the Bering Sea, and coming south in winter as far as Lower California. It may be known from the others by the presence of thick pendent tufts of long, silky, straw-colored feathers, which spring from the sides of the head behind the eyes, and dark-colored, instead of white, under parts. In summer the terminal half of the bill is bright red and the basal portion yellowish olive, while in winter the basal portions are covered with soft dusky brown skin.

This species is extremely abundant on the Commander Islands and Kamchatka, where it forms quite an important article of food for the natives, who also employ the skins in making articles of clothing. The return of the birds in spring is looked forward to with great anticipation by the natives, who capture them in large numbers and in a very simple manner. The following account is from Dr. Stejncger, who spent several years in studying the birds of the far North: “Hundreds and thousands crossed and recrossed the island, coming from all directions, and disappearing on the opposite side, in order to return again and again.

A wonderful sight! The black birds with their conspicuous white face-mark, their long and floating ear-tufts bent like the horns of a ram, and the large green-and-red colored beaks and red legs, looked more like fantastic creatures of the tropics than inhabitants of the less extravagant North. Their flight seemed to have no particular aim except to view and review the spot where they were going to take up their summer abode.

Like black specks they rose from the horizon, heading for the island; the nearer they came the bigger they grew, until they passed over us, disappearing as specks again on the other side, and when first started nothing seemed to be able to bring them out of their straight course. These clumsy-looking, puffy birds possess, nevertheless, a very rapid flight. The natives take advantage of these peculiarities,”stationing themselves on the higher portions of the island with a large net some four feet in diameter, fixed to a light pole ten or twelve feet long. The net is suddenly thrown in front of a bird, flying as above described, which being unable to avoid it by turning flies directly into it.

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